The invention relates to a method for the flat and level advancement of one or more supply webs of paper or the like which are freely suspended between two guide rollers in paper fabricating machines, and it additionally relates to an apparatus for the practice of the method.
In the production of a multi-layer web of paper or the like, as for example in the forming of a multi-layer web of tissue paper on a combination embossing and winding machine, it is necessary to form the web from several supply rolls at once, which means that, under certain circumstances, substantially horizontal lengths of material extend over different distances between the individual supply rolls and the machine. In this case, the webs of material guided in this manner tend, due to their elasticity, to undergo planar oscillations during their forward movement, obliging the machine operator to reduce the speed of the machine, because otherwise tearing and other such time-comsuming disturbances will be produced, due to the delicate nature of the material.
To avoid these disadvantageous trajectories, the web of material that causes the difficulty is passed around guide rollers for the purpose of reducing its unsupported length. Such means of guiding a web of material have the disadvantage that it is very difficult to thread in a new or torn end of material, because these guide rolls are usually disposed near the floor and hence often underneath the supply rolls. Furthermore, the usually great diameter of the supply rolls makes it impossible, without tools and personal aid, to take the fresh end of a web from a remote supply roll and pass it underneath the supply rolls closest to the machine when the latter are mounted with relatively little clearance above the floor.